Apple Watch at the ‘Spring Forward’ Keynote: Our Complete Overview

At Apple’s ‘Spring Forward’ keynote held earlier today at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, Apple provided more details about the Apple Watch, which will open for pre-orders on April 10 and launching on April 24. Today’s keynote was mostly a recap of last September’s announcement of the Apple Watch, with a handful of new details sprinkled throughout, read on to get all the key details. Read on to get an overview of the important announcements from today, but if you’re looking for more information, look no further than the Apple Watch website or the keynote video.

“Apple Watch begins a new chapter in the way we relate to technology and we think our customers are going to love it,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait for people to start wearing Apple Watch to easily access information that matters, to interact with the world, and to live a better day by being more aware of their daily activity than ever before.”

Availability

The Apple Watch will be available for pre-orders on April 10, with the Apple Watch launching on April 24. The initial launch countries will be Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US.

Apple will also have a preview program running in its retail stores and “department store shop-in-shops” that will enable customers the chance to preview and try on their choice of Apple Watch. This program will launch on April 10, alongside the pre-orders.

Pricing

Pricing on the Apple Watch varies widely depending which collection and band you choose to get. Each model of Apple Watch is available in 38mm or 42mm.

Apple Watch Sport

The Apple Watch Sport comes in two colors; Silver Aluminum or Space Gray Aluminum. All Apple Watch Sport models, of which there are 10 variations, come with a Sport Band. This means that the only price variation that exists is whether you choose a 38mm or 42mm Apple Watch.

38mm Apple Watch Sport: $349

42mm Apple Watch Sport: $399

Apple Watch

The (confusingly titled) Apple Watch collection is available in 20 models. The big difference in this collection is that there are a wide variety of different bands available. Because of this variety, the prices range from $549 up to $1,099.

38mm Stainless Steel Case with White Sport Band: $549

42mm Stainless Steel Case with White Sport Band: $599

38mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Sport Band: $549

42mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Sport Band: $599

38mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Classic Buckle: $649

42mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Classic Buckle: $699

38mm Stainless Steel Case with Milanese Loop: $649

42mm Stainless Steel Case with Milanese Loop: $699

38mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Modern Buckle: $749

42mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Leather Loop: $699

38mm Stainless Steel Case with Midnight Blue Modern Buckle: $749

42mm Stainless Steel Case with Bright Blue Leather Loop: $699

38mm Stainless Steel Case with Soft Pink Modern Buckle: $749

42mm Stainless Steel Case with Stone Leather Loop: $699

38mm Stainless Steel Case with Brown Modern Buckle: $749

42mm Stainless Steel Case with Light Brown Leather Loop: $699

38mm Stainless Steel Case with Link Bracelet: $949

42mm Stainless Steel Case with Link Bracelet: $999

38mm Space Black Case with Space Black Stainless Steel Link Bracelet: $1,049

42mm Space Black Case with Space Black Stainless Steel Link Bracelet: $1,099

Apple Watch Edition

The Apple Watch Edition, made from 18-karat gold alloys, is an entirely different product that will be sold in selected retail stores. Prices start at $10,000 and range up from that.

38mm 18-Karat Rose Gold Case with White Sport Band: $10,000

42mm 18-Karat Rose Gold Case with White Sport Band: $12,000

38mm 18-Karat Yellow Gold Case with Black Sport Band: $10,000

42mm 18-Karat Yellow Gold Case with White Sport Band: $12,000

38mm 18-Karat Rose Gold Case with Rose Gray Modern Buckle: $17,000

42mm 18-Karat Yellow Gold Case with Black Classic Buckle: $15,000

38mm 18-Karat Yellow Gold Case with Bright Red Modern Buckle: $17,000

42mm 18-Karat Yellow Gold Case with Midnight Blue Classic Buckle: $15,000

Buying Bands Separately

You can also buy most of the Apple Watch Bands individually starting today. They range from $49 for a Sport Band, up to a Link Bracelet for $449.

Battery Life

Apple announced that the Apple Watch will last up to 18 hours per day. They have in fact a dedicated page on their website devoted to detailed battery details and say that calculation is based on 90 time checks, 90 notifications, 45 minutes of app use, and a 30-minute workout with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth.

There is a Power Reserve mode that the Watch automatically enters if your batter gets too low. Apple claims that when it enters into this mode you can “continue to see the time for up to 72 hours”, based on 4 time checks (of 4 seconds each) every hour.

Charge times are 2.5 hours to reach 100% or 1.5 hours to reach 80%.

All those results and numbers are from the 38mm Watch, with Apple noting that a 42mm Apple Watch “typically experiences longer battery life”.

What is the Apple Watch?

During today’s keynote, Apple once again reiterated the three-pronged approach of the Apple Watch: an incredibly precise timepiece, a new way to connect with others and a smarter way to look at fitness.

Precise Timepiece

There were a few things that Apple highlighted in this respect, the first was how it was accurate within 50ms of UTC, the universal time standard. But they went beyond this and highlighted how the Watch was almost infinitely customizable, with many different watch faces that can also be customized to display various different pieces of content.

Apple Watch goes beyond telling time with specialized functions on the watch face—known in watchmaking as complications—such as the sunrise/sunset, upcoming calendar events or daily activity level. With multiple customizable watch faces and complications, Apple Watch enables millions of possible configurations. Swipe up from the watch face for Glances that quickly show you information you care about, such as the weather forecast, your current location on a map or the music you’re listening to.

Intimate & Immediate Communication Device

This aspect of the Apple Watch encompasses a wide variety of different communication mediums, both existing and new. You can receive messages, emails, phone calls (which you can answer directly from your Apple Watch with an in-built microphone and speaker), and notifications. But the Apple Watch also brings a new way to communicate with your friends and family, provided they also have an Apple Watch. Called Digital Touch, this feature enables you to send sketches, a tap or your heart beat directly to another Apple Watch user.

Apple Watch enables you to send messages, read email and answer calls to your iPhone® right from your wrist. The Taptic Engine alerts you with a gentle tap so you won’t miss important notifications.

Health and Fitness Companion

The Apple Watch features a handful of fitness tracking features which lets the Watch track your activities and motivate you to do more. With a three ring interface, it encourages you to sit less, move more and get some form of exercise every day, with optional reminders every hour to get up if you’ve been sitting still.

The Activity app provides a simple visual snapshot of your daily activity with three rings that measure active calories burned, brisk activity and how often you’ve stood up to take a break from sitting during the day. Apple Watch provides the detailed metrics you need during dedicated workout sessions for the most popular activities, such as walking, running and cycling through the Workout app.

To promote this feature in today’s keynote they showed a video and brought on stage Christy Turlington Burns. Apple gave her an Apple Watch earlier this year and she talked about how it had helped her run a half-marathon. She’s currently training for marathon in London and will actually be keeping a blog to track her preparations on Apple’s website, which you can view here.

We will periodically update this article with more information, check back later for more.

For more coverage, check out our ‘Spring Forward’ keynote news hub and follow @macstoriesnet on Twitter.